"man up monday" – encouraging habitual thinking about sexual health

Public health practitioners often struggle with how to reach young men who are at risk for HIV and STDs. One important factor in increasing HIV and STD testing rates is to disseminate health communications about testing when audiences are most receptive to these messages. Practitioners could potentially increase receptivity by answering the following process-related questions: 1) How often should we be sending communications to program participants? and 2) When is the ideal window of time to be delivering these messages? New research shows that sending weekly messages may be an ideal frequency to motivate people to start and maintain healthy sexual behaviors, and Monday may be the best day to deliver such messages. By leveraging the natural tendency to focus on health behaviors at the beginning of the week, sexual health programs can boost participation levels and contribute to establishing habitual thinking about sexual health. Building on this idea, The Monday Campaigns launched “Man Up Monday,” a creative campaign that sends a sex-positive message to young men, encouraging them to use Monday as the day they think about their sexual health choices, get tested for STDs, and restock their condoms. This session describes how organizations such as Planned Parenthood, Murray State University, and others have successfully used “Man Up Monday” to promote their sexual health services and provides evidence for how leveraging the “Monday Effect” can help other organizations increase their testing numbers.